Power Supplies Reviews

I am just a general hobbyist so I actually have no real need for this drill, I just bought it to have it. I was using it to drill small (1/4 to 1" holes) in plywood with Forstner bits. I drilled about 100 holes over a 2 week period and the drill FAILED. It appears to be a switch problem, but am waiting for report. I had to take drill to authorized fix it place, and am waiting for a call back to trek over there and pick it up. IF I was an electrcian who needed a tool like this I would be highly pissed off. After all the reason to pay Milwaukee's price is to get a quality tool not something that cant even drill 100 small holes.

Purchased this product instead of Magnum 3300 because I only had a few hundred holes to drill for running wire and figured that afterward it would be more applicable to a variety of home rennovation uses. High torque application made mincemeat of the helical gears. If you plan to run a lot of wire or pipe, buy the right tool for the job-not, as I did, this product. I will try to find a rebuild kit for the gearing--and buy the big guy as well. I have also used the little drill to work under sinks and etc and have been pleased. I just think that there should be a warning on the outside of the box "NO LARGE DIAMETER BITS OR AUGER BITS."

I owned this little drill for 9 years before it finally crapped out. I used it for the occasional close quarter work and it is perfect for that purpose.

I don't know of another drill like it. This is a powerful little drill that will drill holes and drive screws in a tighter space than any other drill. It is not suited for truly heavy duty work. Mine gave up when asked to hog out big holes for running wire.

I agree that the paddle switch is precariously placed near the chuck and I have also accidentally activated the switch when changing bits. I find the paddle switch gives a lot of control, however, because of the long travel and needs to be in that location in order to keep the size of this close-quarter drill to the minumum. Having your hand near the bit is very comfortable and aids in control as well.

The Miluwakee Hole-hawg is as famous as their Sawz-all and should be up to continuous duty drilling. I will replace this drill with one just like it but will get a Hole-hawg for drilling lots of big holes in structural framing.

I have owned this sander for about 2 years. When it is working, it is a great sander, much better than others I own, but in the time I have owned it I have had to replace the pad 3 times, and all the bearings once. This sander is not being used commercially, but in a home shop. Yesterday the pad came off again which is what happens when thay wear out, and this time it stripped out the threads in the hole that holds it on. I am sure if I checked the bolt every time I change a disc it would help, but when I pay $100.00 for a tool, I would expect it to stay togeather better than this. I'am not repairing it again. I am buying another brand.

I bought this sander for refurbishing boats. It works great for stripping off paint and exposing fiberglass, and also for sanding off fairing material. It outperformed all my other sanders, by a huge factor. I was able to sand over 400 sq feet of hull in three days. With other sanders I'd need a crew of men and multiple sanders, and it still would take longer.

I use 60 grit "hook and loop" pad and I duct taped a vacuum cleaner to it. A powerful external vacuum cleaner will make dust negligable. On windy days I can sand without a facemask and only need eye protection.

The variable speed works ok, although I had trouble with it later which may be related to some internal probelms after I serviced it.

It is the best all around sander I've used and out performed palm sanders by a factor or 10:1. I can do ten times the work, with a better final finish.

However, I got less than a year of service out of it. The backing pad started to shake off. When I reattached it, it did not perform as well as previously. I'm unsure if the allen head scre4w should be tight or allowed to float slightly. If left slightly loose it tends to shake itself looser.

Also, I found that at times the power seemed to drop, perhaps due to bad contacts on my extension cords, perhaps low service voltage, or possibly something internal.

The internal dust seal was damaged, the first time the pad started to shake itself off, which increased the amount of dust that could not be collected. After the first time the pad started to shake off, I was unable to make it perform like new.

I tried changing extension cords. Now the power was gone from this unit. Although it sometimes picks up and performs like it did out of the box.

I gave this unit a lot of use, and wish I had another one, but I can't give it top marks because the problems I've encountered. I still rated it a 5 because even if it craps out, it is still worth the money. I wish the manual provided service information to maintain it.

I'm now planning on buy a competing 6" sander of similar design.

If I'd had this tool when I finished my first oak floor I could have saved about $150 in rental fees and a number of scars on the floor itself. The sander I rented, a drum sander nearly as big as a lawn mower, was not very maneuverable. It had to move parallel to the grain of the wood. So when I found myself in a kitchen going back and forth a short distance between cabinets, it was almost impossible to reverse course without leaving a scar shaped like the mark a paint roller leaves if you just touch it to a surface.

In all the time I've used this random orbit sander it's never left a scar of any kind. The big drum couldn't come closer than a foot from the cabinets. This little unit even gets a couple inches under the toe kick. With a 60 grit paper it will take down an eighth inch difference between planks in a few seconds. Sure, you have to crouch down on one knee, but you avoid the risk of hernia and pulled muscles that you run when load the massive drum sander into your car.

The random orbit technology is an advance comparable to the ball point over the fountain pen, or the laser level over the line level. There may be other brands or models that are even better than this one, but I have no complaints. The motor is smooth and powerful, but comfortable to use for extended periods with one or two handles. And your hand doesn't vibrate for half an hour after you've stopped as it does with some palm or belt sanders. Another advantage over a belt sander is that it won't devour shirttails or shoelaces or, in the worst case scenario, long hair.

I am disappointed by these bosch angle grinders. I bought one and within a few months the switch needed replacing.

I own 2 of these and have many, many hours on them. They have given me outstanding service. I know for a fact that I have at least 100 hours of operation on the first one and still haven't had to replace the brushes. I use them for cutting, grinding, sanding steel, and cutting concrete.

Compr� este modelo despu�s de tirar a la basura una pulidora china de caracter�sticas similares (una vil copia)... la he trabajado durante horas y me canso de trabajarla pero no se calienta ni la caja de engranes ni el cuerpo de la pulidora, tiene un nivel aceptable de ruido y un peso muy ligero para cualquier tipo de trabajo... es el tipo de herramienta que cualquier aficionado o profesional quisieramos tener...

I purchased this machine new a while back. Generally it is a very good machine. It has plenty of power and the variable speed controls work easily. The 6" stroke is very nice. The table is flat and true but the design leaves a little to be desired for a wood shop. The only way to really clean it is to blow it out with compressed air. I did not like the opened top. I immediately built a hinged cover for the top. In a wood shop a lot of dust would collect and probably cause problems at some point. The machine is quite noisy compared to most drill presses. The chuck is massive and looks good but I had trouble with it becoming very hard to adjust and had to clean and lubricate it frequently. I finally replaced the chuck with a good Jacobs chuck. Over all this machine is a nice addition to the shop.

After having used this drill press for several months I can say that over all I am quite happy with it. I have drilled holes in wood and metal with everything from 1/16 inch twist to 2-1/2 Forstner bits with no problems and have used spindle sanders also with no issues. It runs smoothly and quietly with power to spare.
That being said I am disapointed with several small things: 1. the top of the head is open and the cover is extra $ this seems chintzy on an $800 machine. 2. The table is more geared towards metal work as are most drill presses but there are no through holes to allow an add-on table to be attached. Admittedly these may seem like minor issues but they are enough to take a star away for being cheap on the details.

This drill press is great it is quite and has all the power I will ever need. The only reason that I am giving it 4 stars instead of five is the table that is with it. I ordered a clamp and a vise to go with this great drill, they had to be jacked around to work because the slots in the table do not goo all the way through. These everyday extras work well but had to do a lot of fiddling to get them attached to the base.

One comment is that I find it incredable that Delta feels the top covering the belt and pulleys to be an extra. Made one from plywood to protect the pulleys from loading up with sawdust.

Over all I am most pleased and highly reccomend this drill to any one.
Robb

I bought this vacuum for use in my garage. I do little DIY jobs here and there, and I'm trying to get into woodworking, so I needed a vac to clean up the sawdust and miscellaneous mess. I looked at reviews on vacuums in woodworking magazines, but couldn't justify paying for the super high dollar vacs. Also, my father had a Shop-Vac while I was growing up that worked fine, so I didn't think I could go too wrong.
But I was mistaken. This is an expensive unit, and one of its draws is the auto function that allows you to plug a power tool into it and have the vac turn on when you fire up the tool. That part works. But it doesn't shut itself off when you turn off the sander, saw, etc. When you have to fumble for the vac power switch after using the tool, I'm not sure you've saved yourself a whole lot by not having to fumble for it right before using it. But this is not my biggest gripe.
The biggest problem with this vac is it has little power and is easily clogged up. The other day I spilled some granulated lawn fertilizer on my garage floor. When I went to vacuum it up, this Shop-Vac sucked it up--but only as far as the hose; the fertilizer never made it to the vacuum. I had to detach the hose and empty the fertilizer out into a gargage can. Afterwards I went around my shop vacuuming up sawdust and small debris. I could go about two minutes between having to pull apart the hose extensions or pull the hose straight to dislodge small (about 3/4") wood chips that had plugged up the vac. This Shop-Vac has only worked for me when I was vacuuming up dry sawdust containing absolutely no woodchips, no matter how small. Even then the attachments seem more suited for cleaning out the crevices in the seats of a car than for vacuuming up sawdust coating a garage floor.
The vacuum's power cord is long, which could be a benefit, but I find it too long for use in my 1-1/2 car garage; the vac just trips up over its own cord. The vacuum hose also is long, but readily coils up, pinching off the vacuum and killing off the suction. The hose is also inconvenient to store on the vac itself. Also, I think a larger diameter hose might be a big improvement, but then I would think the vac would need more power to accommodate.
This has been a big disappointment, unlike some other tools I have obtained for my shop, such as my Porter-Cable circular saw and DeWalt router combo kit. It's bad enough that this tool doesn't work very well; it's made only worse that it cost so much to boot.

For the reviewers that complained that they needed to go back to the vac to manually turn off the unit when using the "on-demand" feature, you need to return the unit to be repaired. My vac works perfectly when using the on demand feature. It has a delay of about 6 or 7 seconds before shutting off. This delay is a built in feature that allows the hose to clear itself before shutting down. I think most of the problems mentioned in the reviews have come from not reading the instructions (I must admit, I'm guilty of this myself from time to time). As far as clogging, all vacs with and 1 1/2" hose will clog from wood chips. I invested in the larger hoses that amazon offers, and they fit perfectly into the vac intake. As far as the tool end connection to the hose, this is where good old yankee ingenuity will help. There are rubber fittings available that are "stepped" in size to accomadate different diameter connections, this item doesn't work on all connections, but most. I did have to have the on-demand switch replaced after about 9 months of use (reason for the 4 stars), but other than that this vac has performed extremely well. My main use of the vac is dust collection while being attached to my Bosch orbital sander. It picks up about 95% of the dust, which is a huge improvement over using the attached cloth bags that come with some sanders. I have several of my shop power tools pre-fitted with vac hoses, and simply wheel the vac from tool to tool when needed. This vac is a great alternative to investing in a dust collection system, and all that goes with it, when you don't have the room or the budget.

I purchased one of the Model 925-63 "On Demand" Shop Vac's about 4 years ago,and the only problem I'm having is getting a replacment 12' foot hose like the one that came with the unit. I originally purchased it from Lowes Center, and the replacment hoses they stock, won't work on my planer or sanders. Would someone please tell me where I can get one. The repair center in my home town can't get one for me either. The only other problem I've had, is with an on demand switch that went bad early on, but the repair center replaced it under warranty, and all is well. I would highly recommend to any woodworker the purchase of this Shop Vac Unit,as it does a very good job, when using it with a sander/planer thru the vac hose system,and the vac unit being controlled via hand tools on/off switch. It does a very good job when in normal Shop Vac usage, sweeping the floors,walls,etc,etc.Vacuuming operations is very compariable to the High Dollar Vac units that sell for 2-3 times the amount of the Model 925-63. P.S. add a Dry Wall Filter Bag,and a secondary Hepa Filter to the unit,and you there isn't another Shop Vac Unit to compare for the Monies invested.

I bought this saw instead of the comparable Hitachi because it was a bit lighter and more powerfull. The product details said it has an electric brake, an essential safety feature in my opinion, but it DOES NOT! I will be returning mine and purchasing another, but not from Amazon.

This saw was purchased to replace an underpowered Black & Decker, which bogged down when ripping hardwood trim for bookcases and cabinets. The power of this saw is excellent, although DeWalt's own rip fence flopped around in the slot so badly that the trim cuts were practically useless. I tried putting tape around the rip fence to steady it in the slot, but it didn't help much. Since the saw has good power, I use it to rip plywood panels to size before precision trimming. For basic construction and framing, this saw would probably be more than adequate, but not for precision trim cuts. As others have reported, the shoe flexes too much (probably because DeWalt tried to keep it as lightweight as possible), and when combined with the shaky rip fence slot, it will probably give rough edges to your trim.

Luckily, I haven't noticed the flex in the base that was mentioned by a previous reviewer. I have used this saw for several small projects and am very happy with it.

I do recommend adding the Dewalt edge guide, which is available from Amazon. It slips into a slot on the base and is held in place by a bolt. The edge guide helps in starting and keeping the cut square.

Making a plunge cut is chancy without a base of this nature. A Dremel tool is a petite router great for delecate operations. The base on this attachment is as large as one used in 1/4hp routers, negating an asset.

The attachment points of the router to the base are close together near the bottom end of the router. It is easy to wiggle the tool even when screws are firmly tightened.

This is a useful concept; it can do what it is supposed to do, but is less than ideal.

While the tool is well constructed there is a shortfall in design. Once the Dremel motor is secured into the router attachment it is impossible to access the shaft locking button for making adjustments or changing cutting tools. The Dremel motor must be removed from the router attachment each time a cutting tool is changed. Dremel should send this design back to engineering.

Make sure you select the correct Dremel Tool.

Not what I expected...FISKARS are supposed to be high quality stainless made in Finland. These are ordinary steel, ordinary pruners, made in the USA for Fiskars. I returned them. Fiskars Garden Shears Model 9637 are the real thing. But now that these pruners are reduced in price, as long as you know what you are getting, they aren't a bad buy.

These work fine on green wood up to 1/2" in diameter, but anything larger needs more leverage. The lock is easy to use and very accessable, making one hand operations a breeze. The best thing about these is that they'll fit in your back pocket and stay locked. I also have a ratcheting, anvil style clipper that works much better on slightly larger twigs with much less effort.

I like these a lot -- I bought them last May to cut back our lilac and forsythia bushes which hadn't been pruned in several years. The shears cut easily through both thick and thin stems, you can even cut several thin branches at once. I've since used them on average of once a week to cut and trim back tree branches and saplings as well as roses and other bushes. Fwiw, they do tend to do better on green or growing wood than on dead branches. As another reviewer noted, the foam handle covers can slide off but I glued mine back on and haven't had any problems since. The blades are easy to keep clean and the lock keeps them locked even if you say, toss them on the grass or a chair. Note, these aren't for pruning large tree branches or tough, thick bushes but they're great for basic pruning.

Class D citizen band provides an excelent very short distance communication. With the FCC only legally allowing 4 watts on 11 meters your range is very limited; all CB's can potentially be modified however for a illegal higher output. Unless your running a half wave base antenna, a nice beam, or a extremely long hi-gain mobile antenna dont expect much from this rig, or any other CB rig. With the new FRS fad they are pounding in the 2 mile range... however this is not true because one they run in (FM)frequency modulation mode which has excelent sound but its mainly line of sight communication only, two they have extreme power restrictions and no external antennas; those 350 miliwatts of power will barely get you a mile unless your in an excelent terrain. I highly recomend AM mode for distance, however if your going to buy a CB get one with (SSB) single side band which will allow you to use a portion of an AM wave the upper or lower part. In side band mode your 4 watt radio will produce 12 watts of legal power because you are only using the top, or bottom part of a wave without a carrier, this tends to be garbled so constant adjustment with the clarifier nobb may be neaded. As well on CB..11 meters if your lucky in the heat of the summer days the band accasionaly will open up and allow your radio wave to skip clear across the world; this is rare though running such low power but it is possible and ive seen it happen. But for those who seek the distance of radio Amateur (HAM) radio is what its all about. The FCC has made it possible to become a liscensed ham operator without knowing morse code anymore and a 35 question test which you can pass with a 70%. As a ham operator i can tell you its very rewarding, repeaters are free to use and usually have about a 25-40 mile range which you can hit with just miliwatts of power, or for those who seek long communications it is legal to run up to 1.5 kilowatts (1500 watts) of brute power. Although this is not neaded you can easily work the world with low power on certain bands. And with repeater ive hit some of them next to 100 miles away running only 5 watts on 2 meter fm. but thats all i have to say
73's
kc�mvl

The Midland 77-092 is definitely not overloaded with features, but it is a good low cost general purpose transceiver. I use it as a mobile unit with the Midland 18-2983 magnet mount antenna and am pleased with both products.

This Cb is great I have been using it for a while now and I love it. You do have to go to radio shack and get a cigarette adapter and splice the wires but its common sence stuff. and I didn't mount it. it sits fine in my ranger. You should get a good antenna I got a plastic whip at radio shack for about 20 bucks and it gets out far. The only thing you might consider is a filter because when the car runs it makes a buzz noise not lound just annoying but its nothing that you couldn't fix with your squelch because when you talk it goes away and when you get someone talking to you it will go away but if you are one that needs everything perfect go get it at radio shack. but other than that no problems! Its Great GET IT!

Following the recomendations of various reviews I purchased this saw to replace a 23 year old Milwaukee that fell 30 feet off a roof bending the plate badly. In six months of owning it both the angle and depth knobs have broken off, the plate flexes badly when used for a depth cut, and today for no apparant reason the guard handle broke off,just sheared right off the guard rendering the saw useless. I own a number of other Bosch tools and can't say enough good about them. For all the obvious excellent engineering the saw has it's not a professionals tool. I fixed the bent plate and put the old Milwaukee back in service.

Purchased saw 4 months ago, depth gage...broken, angle gage...broken, 1 year refund...useless because some pencil pushing consultant at bosch said the saw was misused. The bill to fix the $100 saw is $80. I have a porter cable circular saw that is over 20 years old and has taken twice the beating the bosch will ever see yet nothing is broke on it. The bosch took a 1 foot fall off the underside of a sawhorse and the fall broke the angle gage. The depth gage adjuster broke during regular use. I do not "misuse" my tools but I do use them!

I bought this saw a couple of months ago. Overall I'm really happy with the decision. It's relatively light and well balanced. The sight line is truly the best that I've came across. Angle and depth adjustments could not be any better. I've had no problems at all. The only gripe is that I wish Bosch would include a case instead of the bag for storage. The bag just doesn't protect the saw that well, and there's no pocket for the wrench.

Update: The direct connect cord system is really a pain in the rear. Its not easy to get a cord plugged in. I've bent the prongs several times. I think the prong will break before the year is over. My suggestion is to get a the model with the included cord and leave it plugged in to the saw permanently.